Black Barbershop Lesson Plan

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Objective: Students will be able to explain the cultural importance of black barbershops and evaluate the claims in a video and nonfiction text.

Essential Questions

  • How does the space you inhabit affect your behavior?
  • What is the value in having a community space?

Materials

Vocabulary

  • Cultural space (noun): physical or digital space where people with one or more shared identity characteristics form community
  • Hypertension (noun): unusually high blood pressure, which can cause damage to the heart and arteries. (hypertensive: adjective)
  • Disparity (noun): large difference

Lesson Overview

  • For generations, barbershops have been integral to African American culture. How have barbershops remained relevant throughout the many cultural changes of the twentieth century? In this lesson, students will answer that question as they explore the ways that black barbershops have been used to create culture and community.

Procedure

  • Ask students: When you think of going to a barbershop or hair salon, what do you think of? (Write student answers on the board.) Do any of you think of a barbershop or a hair salon as an important space?
  • Tell students: For African Americans, barbershops in particular have been both a place that produces culture and a space that builds community over time. Today we are going to explore some of the ways that this took place over time, and why barbershops are still important within the Black community today.
  • Question preview from worksheet: While watching this video, consider the following questions:
    • Why were Black barbers important during slavery?
    • How did being a Black barber change after emancipation?
    • What was the significance of Black barbershops during the Great Migration?
    • Why does the narrator argue that Black barbershops are still important today?
  • Watch Left of Black video on Black Barbershops. Allow students time after the video is completed to answer video questions.
  • Have students compare video answers in partners before discussing as a class. Some key points to highlight:
    • Why were Black barbers important during slavery?
      • This created the service economy that helped Black barbers transition after slavery.
    • How did being a Black barber change after emancipation?
      • After emancipation, Black barbers were able to utilize their skills in order to profit and form other businesses, as well as continuing to work within the black community.
    • What was the significance of Black barbershops during the Great Migration?
      • As African Americans moved out of the South, Black barbershops were some of the first places that they went to help navigate their new cities.
    • Why does the narrator argue that black barbershops are still important today?
      • Black barbershops remain a place where community can form as people gather in a shared space.
  • Tell students: Next, we will be reading an article published in 2018 arguing for the continuing importance of Black barbershops, and their potential impact on the health of Black men.  While reading this article, try to find the author’s specific claim as well as the evidence that she cites to back up her claim.
  • Students read article individually or with a partner and then answer the corresponding article questions.
  • Ask the students to share in the whole group: Let’s discuss as a class: How did you evaluate the article’s central claim? Did you agree with the author? Why or why not?
  • Discuss essential questions with the class: How does the space you inhabit affect your behavior? What is the value in having a community space?

Further Resources

Alignment to Common Core Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.5: Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.